German Volume Training is an advanced training strategy that has been used by bodybuilders, powerlifters and strong men since the 1970’s.
German Volume Training(also known as GVT) is a powerful advanced training strategy that incorporates heavy volume and shorter rest times. The end result is powerful lean muscle gains in a short amount of time.
Even advanced weight lifters who have reached 90 percent of their genetic potential can have tremendous gains following a German volume training protocol. Many bodybuilders will throw in an 8-12 week german volume routine during bulking months to pack on a serious amount of lean muscle mass.
So what exactly is defined as GVT and how does it differ from traditional methods of training? Let’s dive in and take a look.
What is German Volume Training?
GVT can be set up in a number of ways, but to eliminate confusion I will share my favorite German Volume Training strategy.
German Volume Training is performed by doing 10 sets of a specific exercise at approximately 60 percent of your 1 repetition max. The trick is you are only resting 60 seconds between sets. You want to keep your repetition range between 8-10 for every set.
You should attempt to keep the same weight for every set of German Volume Training – although depending on your muscular endurance you may have to decrease the weight to stay within that repetition range on the last few sets.
You will be chugging along on your 1st few sets with no problem during GVT – but the real fun starts to kick in around sets 5 and 6. This is when most lifters start to really feel the burn associated with GVT.
Why does GVT help you Build Lean Muscle So Quickly?
There are two major reasons that GVT helps you build lean muscle mass quickly. The first reason is that it will stretch out the fascial tissue on top of your muscles. Stretching out the fascial tissue with high repetition and short rest time training is one of the best ways to develop a stubborn growing muscle group.
The fascial tissue needs to be stretched so you can build lean muscle mass efficiently. Some guys are genetically gifted and have thin layers of stretchy fascial tissue while others have thick layers of fascial tissue. Obviously the elite bodybuilders like Ronnie Coleman and Phil Heath most likely were born with thin layers of fascial tissue. If you are a “hard gainer” doing GVT and other advanced techniques, you’ll quickly stretch out the fascial tissue. That is one of the best things you can do to speed up your muscle gains.
Another reason that GVT works so well is you are placing a lot of volume in a short amount of time on your body. Most guys are used to the standard workout protocol of doing 3-5 sets of a specific exercise. Doing 10 sets of an exercise is quite demanding and will force your body to work harder than it is use to working.
When you are struggling to make strength and lean muscle gains high volume is usually the answer to break through a plateau.
What Exercises Work best for GVT?
If you are serious about packing on the most lean muscle mass in the shortest amount of time with GVT I recommend that you stick with the compound exercises that work your body’s largest and strongest muscle groups.
My favorite way to train with GVT is to simply do 2-3 exercises per Muscle group and work it into a 5 day split.
There is no need to do countless sets of shaper exercises when you are doing 10 sets of the most effective muscle building exercise with GVT.
Sample Training Split with German Volume Training
Here is a sample 5 day split that you can follow with a German Volume Training protocol.
Remember that you are doing 10 sets of each exercise at 60 percent of your 1 rep max. Keep your rep range between 8-12 every set and rest no more than 60 seconds between sets.
Workout One: Chest
Exercise One: Db Bench Press
Exercise Two: Barbell Incline Bench Press
Workout Two: Back
Exercise One: Barbell Row
Exercise Two: Barbell Deadlift
Workout Three: Biceps and Triceps
Exercise One: Ez Bar Skull Crush
Exercise Two: Standing Barbell Curl
Workout Four: Leg Day
Exercise One: Barbell Squat
Exercise Two: Stiff Leg Dead lift
Workout Five: Traps and Deltoids
Exercise One: Barbell Shrugs
Exercise Two: Seated Db Shoulder Press